21st Century Fox Responds to Criticisms of Murdoch Comments About Harassment Scandal
21st Century Fox is responding tonight to a new report about how current and former Fox News staffers are feeling about Rupert Murdoch‘s recent comments about harassment at the network.
Murdoch was asked about how “harmful” allegations of sexual harassment at Fox News have been for the business, and he said, “It’s all nonsense.”
He defended how Fox News handled the Roger Ailes matter and said they were getting flak for being a more conservative news outlet, though he did note that now “all the liberals are going the drain.” That comment, of course, is in reference to how sexual harassment scandals have been hitting other major news networks in the past few weeks.
A new report from Yashar Ali in The Huffington Post says that current and former Fox News female staffers aren’t happy about Murdoch’s remarks, seeing them as overly dismissive:
For this story, HuffPost spoke with 10 current and former female Fox News staffers, all of whom are or were on-air talent and say they have faced harassment or assault by current and former Fox News executives and on-air talent. They said the comment by Murdoch, who controls the Fox News Channel along with his two sons Lachlan and James through 21st Century Fox, not only diminished the scandal that has plagued the network for over 17 months, it also virtually erased a flood of allegations, terminations, forced resignations and settlements.
All the women communicated via text message and asked to remain anonymous, either because they still work at the network or are bound by non-disclosure agreements they signed when they left, or because their current employers don’t allow them to speak to the press without authorization.
One woman, who used to work at Fox News asked, “How much will it take before you actually start caring about your female employees? Is your 52 billion enough? Are we really going to clean house now?”
A former reporter said, “Roger’s circle of advisors laughed off the problem and enabled his behavior to continue for years. Rupert’s dismissal is a crude insult to women. He should know better.”
In a statement to Mediaite, a spokesperson for 21st Century Fox said the following:
“Rupert never characterized the sexual harassment matters at FOX News as ‘nonsense.’ Rather, he responded negatively to the suggestion that sexual harassment issues were an obstacle to the Company’s bid for the rest of Sky. Under Rupert’s leadership and with his total support, the Company exited Roger Ailes, compensated numerous women who were mistreated; trained virtually all of its employees; exited its biggest star; and hired a new head of HR. By his actions, Rupert has made it abundantly clear that he understands that there were real problems at FOX News. Rupert values all of the hard-working colleagues at FOX News, and will continue to address these matters to ensure FOX News maintains its commitment to having a work environment based on the values of trust and respect.”
[image via screengrab]
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